Video Systems Provide Security
Solutions provide security environment for educational institutions
In the past few years, tragic events have
increased awareness for educational institutions
across America. This recent spike
has reminded educators and security officers
alike that it is the responsibility of
schools to ensure the safety of their students
and employees and protect school property
and equipment from theft or damage, encouraging
them to invest in security systems.
Dealers have been using access control systems
to help secure schools across the country.
Paxton’s Net2 access control and Net2 Entry,
video intercom systems provide a simple, userfriendly
solution that offers benefits beyond
only securing doors. Schools have the flexibility
to manage changing schedules, automate
door open and close times during specific
hours and prevent unauthorized personnel
from entering school campuses.
Net2 allows people to move freely around
a building, while also ensuring specific areas
benefit from higher security. It can also be
used as an effective registration tool, providing
easy, automated reporting of who is
on the school campus. The reports can be
custom-built for user events of individual or
groups of doors. For example, if a door is
forced open, an email notification is instantly
sent with any associated CCTV footage if
integrated with the system. Other features
include the ability to personalize cards with
employee and student photos for quick visual
verification and anti-passback that prevents
students or unauthorized users from sharing
tokens used for entering a secured area.
Another key security element the system
possesses is an emergency lockdown feature
to secure the campus at the touch of a button.
In the event of an emergency lockdown,
only specific security personnel can be permitted
to pass through secured doors. When
integrated with Net2 Entry, the video intercom
system, it provides a quick and convenient
way for reception staff to visually
verify visitors before granting them access
into the school.
However, these systems are more than
just a security solution. Schools benefit from
automated security settings, such as auto expiration
dates that indicate the time period
that a user’s access is valid. Visitor cards, for
example, can be configured so that they automatically
expire after one day. Contractors
or cleaning staff cards can be set to only allow
access between certain dates and times.
There’s also a roll call feature that can be set
up to generate an automatic roll call report
when the fire alarm goes off. This helps to
identify exactly who is safe once the building
has been evacuated.
Paxton systems seamlessly integrate with
a range of other manufacturers including
CCTV, biometrics, visitor management and
intruder and fire alarms systems. System administrators
can manage these systems all
from one central platform, making administration
simple and straightforward with Net2
software, which is also available through the
Paxton Connect app or Net2 Online, the web
browser interface version.
“Products and systems are stemmed
from customer feedback, so everything that
we design, and build is made to meet our
customer needs,” said Jonathan Lach, vice
president of sales at Paxton. “Schools are
a major market for us, and we’ve received
excellent feedback from schools like Lake
Oconee Academy and Wesleyan School that
we’re extremely proud of.”
Lake Oconee Academy
Lake Oconee Academy is a charter school
located in Greensboro, Ga. It was established
in 2007 as a Pre-K4 school and has since expanded
to having their first senior grade class
in 2018. The school is one of the highest performing
charter schools in the state and has
been listed as a Georgia Advanced Placement
(AP) Honor School. It is also one of the best
performing public schools in the country. The
campus includes eight buildings, over 100 employees
and nearly 1,000 students.
As the school grew, Lake Oconee Academy
needed an access control system that was
easily scalable and simple to use. Creating
different access levels, time zones, movement
tracking and event reporting were all requirements
of the new system to manage access for
staff, students and visitors on campus.
The school installed Paxton’s Net2 access
control system, which moves beyond the basics
of controlling the flow of people around
a building. It is designed to make the management
of any site straightforward with a
range of features that ensure the system is
easy to use.
Several on-site users now have administrative
rights to manage the system. The teachers
and students are assigned different access levels,
and access to the site is set up with specific
time zones that fit around the normal school
day. The IT department created custom access
permissions for the range of school days
within the software to control access across
the campus and ensure no one can gain entry
to the site outside of school hours.
“Our previous access control system had a
lot of missing features,” said Ryan Rogers, the
former IT director at Lake Oconee Academy.
“Paxton’s Net2 system is simple and straightforward,
with all the features we required. It’s
also cost effective, which is a big plus.”
Rogers also wanted to ensure that all
employees and students were afforded an extra
layer of security. The lockdown feature
within Net2 allows a site to lock all or specific
doors at once. This feature is a proactive approach to curbing danger in the case of an emergency. It also gives
users the capability to access the system remotely and make changes
without having to be physically on site. This is a useful feature for
situations when the school must be closed unexpectedly due to inclement
weather.
Easily manageable site access now provides heightened security
at Lake Oconee Academy. The Net2 system allows the school to create
custom access features, reporting, incident notifications and much
more. Employees, students and parents can have peace of mind because
the school has a system in place that can secure and restrict
access to the campus. The school plans to continue to expand their
site, and the Net2 system will grow with it.
Wesleyan School
Founded in 1963, Wesleyan School is located on 85 acres of land
in Peachtree Corners, Ga. The school comprises nine main buildings
including a chapel, two libraries and two dining halls. There are
over 1,000 students and about 200 faculty members on site. Wesleyan
School wanted a complete solution that could be implemented to secure
the school’s buildings and access through the main gates.
“Our school is set across 85 acres, so it is a big job ensuring all of
the buildings are secure,” said Brian Morgan, the director of technology
at Wesleyan. “Previously, someone had to drive around to lock
and unlock all the buildings every day. After Sandy Hook, we decided
improvements should be made to increase student and staff safety
and protect school property.”
Wesleyan was looking for a system that could instantly switch into
lockdown and be flexible enough to manage the movement of students
and changing schedules of a busy school.
Wesleyan School decided to install Paxton’s Net2 access control
system. The technology electronically controls the main gate and the
nine buildings on one network, meaning the system is administered
from one central PC. They opted to use a key feature, which allowed
them to instantly lockdown the school in an emergency using a cell
phone as a key by communicating to the network with a call.
Wesleyan also installed Net2 Entry onto the school gates and at
the entrance of each of the six buildings. This enables the school office
to see students and visitors who do not have a valid token before
they access the site.
Net2 has provided a secure system whilst also being flexible to
the school’s changing timetables. Two staff administer the system at
the school, meeting once a week to review the timetables and make
any necessary changes to the door schedules using the custom days
feature.
The school’s Avigilon CCTV system is now integrated to work
seamlessly with Net2, and an additional 10 doors are being considered.
This would include adding the faculty rooms, the server and the
baseball batting cages to the network.
The potential for Net2 to have a major impact on school safety
is clear through these examples of successful implementation at two
respected educational institutions. This software
is more than just a security solution—it’s a tool
that can help schools be more effective by making
their staff and students more efficient and safer at
the same time.
This article originally appeared in the September 2019 issue of Security Today.